107 KJEP 16:2 (2019), pp. 107-122 Seeking the meaning of quality education: Paradigm changes from the 1960s to the 2010s Sung-Sang Yoo Seoul National University, Korea Da Jung Jung Gyeongin National University of Education, Korea Heesu Yang Korea National Sport University, Korea Esoul Moon Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation, Korea Yoonjung Hwang Seoul National University, Korea Abstract While quality education has regained global attention since the World Education Forum 2015, there is rare agreement on the term “quality education” within the international community, as well as in academia. This study aims to review articles on quality education published in selected academic journals between the 1960s and the 2010s to find a pattern of change in how quality education is defined. Inspired by Tikly and Barrett (2011) and Tikly (2011), this study applies four main discourses — postcolonial, input-output, human rights and social justice — to explore trends in international journal articles on quality education. From the 1960s to the 2010s, the number of published articles on quality education has increased each decade. While the predominance of the input-output approach has continued, our analysis shows that the conceptualization of quality education has diversified since 1960. The human rights approach in quality education studies has steadily increased since 2000, although rarely do studies address the postcolonial approach. Moreover, research embracing the social justice approach noticeably increased in the 2010s. While further rigorous studies are required to analyze why the way we address quality * The study was first presented at the 18th International Conference on Education Research held in October 2017, at the Seoul National University. We truly appreciate the constructive and insightful comments provided by the discussants and the audience. KEDI Journal of Educational Policy- ISSN 1739- 4341- © Korean Educational Development Institute 2019, Electronic version: http://eng.kedi.re.kr